Join us in Carlsbad, California for the 31st Advanced HLA Technical Workshop. This program is led by a faculty of distinguished clinicians and scientists from the world-wide transplant community who will present lectures on the importance of assessing patient risk in transplantation, strategies for knowledge-based HLA antibody identification, and presentations on the role of HLA antibodies and NGS in bone marrow transplantation.

This three-day workshop will also include presentations from the winners of the HLA case study competition which were just announced.

Event Information

Program

The 2017 Advanced HLA Technical Workshop in Carlsbad, California will include three morning sessions featuring cutting edge presentations in antibody monitoring and HLA genotyping. This year we are honored to have as our session moderators, Dr. Elaine Reed, Dr. Edgar Milford, and Dr. Dolly Tyan, three outstanding scientists who have helped to shape the field of HLA and Transplantation for more than 30 years. Their scientific accomplishments and global recognition will set the stage for a stimulating program.

This is a brief overview of the program. For a detailed view, please download the program.

MODERATORS:

Dr. Elaine Reed
University of California, Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA

Dr. Edgar Milford
Harvard University
Boston, MA

Dr. Dolly Tyan
Stanford University
Palo Alto, CA

Sunday — March 12

1:00 – 5:00 PM

Workshop Registration (Las Palmas)

6:00 – 9:00 PM

Welcome Cocktail & Dinner (Valley Promenade)

Monday — March 13 | Costa Del Sol D/E

8:00 AM

Introduction & Welcome

8:15 – 10:00 AM

Diagnosing Rejection in Solid Organ Transplantation

The role of antibodies in transplantation continues to dominate our field. While more and more research is being published, sorting through it all can be a challenge. Our session will give workshop participants an opportunity to better understand how innovation in antibody monitoring is truly moving the field of transplantation forward.

PRESENTATIONS:

The Antibody Phenotype: Looking beyond the MFI

Adriana Zeevi, PhD | University of Pittsburgh – Pittsburgh, PA

Dr. Adriana Zeevi will speak on the development of an anti-HLA antibody phenotype through multiple screening strategies.

The Molecular Phenotype: Molecular Microscope in the Clinic

Gaurav Gupta, MD | Virginia Commonwealth University - Richmond, VA

Dr. Alexandre Loupy will share the Paris integrative approach to disease diagnosis during his session.

Crunching the Numbers: Big Data in Transplantation

Alexandre Loupy, MD, PhD | Necker Hospital, Paris, France

Dr. Gaurav Gupta will provide a firsthand account of real-time clinical use of the Molecular Microscope, a new molecular gene expression assay, in his session.

10:00 – 10:30 AM

Coffee Break

10:30 AM - 12:30 PM

HLA Case Study Presentations

PANELISTS:

Donna Phelan, CHS | Barnes-Jewish Hospital -St. Louis, MO

Harriet Noreen | Fairview Hospital - Minneapolis, MN

PRESENTATIONS:

The Role of Donor-Specific Class II Anti-HLA Antibodies Detected by C1q in Humoral Rejection

Tuesday — March 14 | Costa Del Sol D/E

8:00 - 10:00 AM

Advancements in HLA Genotyping

As the field continues to advance, it can be difficult to keep up with the rapid pace of change. Our session will give attendees a moment to catch up and learn more about new developments in HLA genotyping.

PRESENTATIONS:

Combining Sanger SBT with Phasing Probes Results in Resolution of the Majority of HLA Variation

Carolyn Hurley, PhD | Georgetown University - Washington D. C.

Dr. Carolyn Hurley will open the session discussing how two existing technologies (SSO and SBT) can work harmoniously together to produce faster results with better resolution during her talk.

Making NGS a Reality – The University of Miami Experience

Phillip Ruiz, MD, PhD | University of Miami - Miami, FL

Dr. Philip Ruiz will discuss his experience with the implementation of NGS in his lab for clinical reporting during his presentation.

10:00 - 10:30 AM

Coffee Break

10:30 - 12:30 PM

Next Generation Sequencing Session

There are many new developments in HLA and Transplantation. This session will focus on advancements in HLA Genotyping in Bone Marrow and Solid Organ Transplantation.PRESENTATIONS:

The NGS Era is Now!

Lee Ann Baxter Lowe, PhD | Children’s Hospital – Los Angeles, CA

Dr. Baxter-Lowe will explore the benefits of NGS and will lead the discussion detailing the accuracy, coverage, clinical relevance provided by NGS and consider the feasibility for small labs and discuss future directions.

NGS Implementation – Lessons Learned

Jennifer Zhang, PhD | UCLA - Los Angeles, CA

Dr. Zhang will continue the conversation sharing her experiences deploying NGS in the laboratory and review a number of interesting cases.

12:30 - 5:00 PM

Free Afternoon

6:00 - 7:00 PM

EVENING SESSION

Epitope Matching in Kidney Allocation: Is this the future?

Massimo Mangiola, PhD | University of Pittsburgh - Pittsburgh, PA

7:00 - 10:00 PM

Group Dinner (Valley Promenade / Legends Lawn)

Wednesday — March 15 | Costa Del Sol D/E

8:00 - 10:00 AM

The Impact of KAS: Are we Achieving Equity for the Highly Sensitized Candidate?

Speaker Biographies

Our esteemed faculty is comprised of HLA leaders who will present various topics relevant to role of antibodies in transplantation and new developments NGS genotyping.

Adriana Zeevi, PhD

Dr. Adriana Zeevi is a Professor of Pathology, Surgery and Immunology at University of Pittsburgh and the director of the Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics Laboratory at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center since 1999.

❝ The Antibody Phenotype: Looking beyond the MFI ❞

Alexandre Loupy, MD, PhD

Dr. Alexandre Loupy is a 36-year-old Nephrologist at the Department of Nephrology and Kidney Transplantation at Necker Hospital in Paris, France. He started his fellowship in November 2011 and is now part of the department as an associate professor at Necker Hospital.

❝ Crunching the Numbers: Big Data in Transplantation ❞

Carolyn Katovich Hurley, PhD

Carolyn Hurley is a Professor in the Departments of Oncology and Microbiology & Immunology. She is also the Research Director of the CW Bill Young Marrow Donor Recruitment and Research Program at Georgetown University. Research Interests: Role of polymorphism in immune response genes; hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and unrelated volunteer donor registries.

Cathi Murphey, PhD

Dr. Murphey is Laboratory Director at Southwest Immunodiagnostics, Inc. in San Antonio, Texas and has been actively involved in the administration, budgeting and technical operations of SWID for 28 years. She has a passion for the field of transplantation and is an active and contributing member of ASHI and UNOS. She has served on various committees and the ASHI Board of Directors and is currently the UNOS 4 Regional Histocompatibility representative.

❝ The Impact of KAS: Are we Achieving Equity for the Highly Sensitized Candidate? ❞

Gaurav Gupta, MD

Dr. Gupta is currently the training program director for the Transplant Nephrology Fellowship at VCUHS. He has been a faculty member at VCUHS since 2012 and is currently an Assistant Professor of Medicine.

❝ The Molecular Phenotype: Molecular Microscope in the Clinic ❞

Jennifer Zhang, PhD

Dr. Zhang was appointed Assistant Professor of Pathology in 2009 and serves as the Associate Director of the UCLA Immunogenetics Center providing clinical services and research leadership in the field of the Immunogenetics. She is a board certified Laboratory Director in Immunogenetics by the American Board of Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics.

❝ NGS Implementation – Lessons Learned ❞

Lee Ann Baxter-Lowe, PhD, dABHI

Dr. Lee Ann Baxter-Lowe is the Director of the HLA Laboratory at Children's Hospital Los Angeles and also serves as an Adjunct Clinical Professor at the University of Southern California. She is an author for more than 150 scientific publications and 200 abstracts. She holds 5 patents related to HLA typing. She has had a long-standing commitment to policy development and has recently completed terms as the chair of the Histocompatibility Committee of the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) and histocompatibility representative to the UNOS Kidney Committee.

❝ The NGS Era is Now! ❞

Massimo Mangiola, PhD

Dr Mangiola is the current Assistant Director of the UPMC Histocompatibility Laboratory in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He begun his career in transplant immunology in south Italy, working in an Immunology & stem cell processing laboratory. Dr. Mangiola completed his graduated studies in immunology in Genoa (Italy) where he completed the Ph.D. Program in Experimental and Clinical Immunology. Dr. Mangiola holds a certification as Diplomate of the American Board of Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics (ABHI) and has several years of experience in transplant Immunology.

❝ Epitope Matching in Kidney Allocation: Is this the future? ❞

Olga Timofeeva, PhD

Olga Timofeeva, PhD, D(ABHI) is an Associate Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University, Director of Molecular Pathology Laboratory and Associate Director of the Immunogenetics Laboratory at Temple University Health System. Dr. Timofeeva is a board-certified Laboratory Director in Immunogenetics by the American Board of Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics. A major focus of Dr. Timofeeva’s work is to investigate mechanisms of antibody-mediated rejection and the role of DSAs, and to develop novel biomarkers for diagnostics and management of transplant rejection.

Peter Lalli, PhD

Dr. Lalli is the director of the histocompatibility and flow cytometry laboratories at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, North Carolina and serves as the director for the histocompatibility laboratory at Lehigh Valley Hospital in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Dr. Lalli received his Doctorate from Case Western Reserve University where he studies the role of complement proteins in T cell activation during transplant rejection. After completed his fellowship at Allogen Laboratories at Cleveland Clinic he moved to Philadelphia to work with LABS, Inc. and the Gift of Life Donor Program, running the HLA and infectious disease testing laboratory.

❝ The REAL World: HLA Donor Typing Gets Real ❞

Phillip Ruiz, MD, PhD

Dr. Phillip Ruiz has been at the University of Miami since 1989, where he is a Professor of Pathology and Surgery, the Medical Director of the Transplant Laboratories, and Director of Immunopathology. His research interests include immune tolerance, subclinical rejection, and the interaction of innate immunity with alloreactivity. He has more than 470 peer-reviewed journal articles and numerous chapters and is a frequently invited speaker at worldwide meetings. He is on the editorial board and/or a reviewer of numerous journals and a member of many professional organizations.

❝ Making NGS a Reality – The University of Miami Experience ❞

Robert Bray, PhD

Dr Bray is Professor of Pathology and co-director of the Histocompatibility and Molecular Immunogenetics Laboratory at Emory University Hospital and is Chiar of the UNOS Histocompatibility committee. He is board certified as a Histocompatibility Director by ABHI and holds HCLD certification from the ABB. He is a past president of ASHI and has served on the UNOS Board of Directors. He has been at Emory for 26 years and involved in transplant immunology for over 35 years. Dr. Bray has authored numerous publications in the area of transplant immunology where his primary focus has been the applications of new technology, particularly flow cytometric-based methods, to improve our understanding of the immune response in transplant patients.

❝ The Impact of KAS: Are we Achieving Equity for the Highly Sensitized Candidate? ❞

Congratulations to Our Case Study Winners!

We are excited to announce the winners of this year's HLA Technical Case Study Competition. We would like to thank everyone who participated. Numerous interesting case studies were submitted from HLA laboratories across the United States and Canada. Special thanks and appreciation go to our five judges, who set aside time from their busy schedules, to complete this challenging task. With so many great submissions, it was a difficult decision to make. The winners will travel to Carlsbad, California where they will present their winning case study at the 31st Advanced HLA Technical Workshop. Join us in congratulating them on this well-earned recognition.

Bobbie Rhodes-Clark

University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences

The Role of Donor-Specific Class II Anti-HLA Antibodies Detected by C1q in Humoral Rejection

Fiona (Fumiko) Yamamoto

Stanford Blood Center

NGS of Small Bowel Biopsy Reveals Unresolved Donor Alleles and Eliminates Further Augmented Immunosuppression for AMR

Jessica Jackstadt

Albany Medical College

Transplanting More Than a Pancreas; A Case Study

An Thi Truong Thai

Medstar Georgetown University Hospital

DSA: True or False?

Tracey Schilling

John Hopkins University

Crossing DSA Barriers in Liver/Kidney Transplantation: We're Not Out of the Woods Yet

This is a brief overview of the program. For a detailed view, please download the program.